Round Three Redux? Round Five-and-three-quarters? In any case, Welsh fans will be biting their nails, or any other available substance, and wondering if France can win with a bonus point and 21 points to deprive them of the title.
Scotland will no doubt have plenty to say about this, as a win with a six-point points advantage will put them second on the table (giving them their best finish in the Six Nations), supposing France don’t score a LBP.
Sadly, both teams can finish above Ireland. Maybe we should just cancel this match.
And maybe we should support France to wind up the OH.
Onna telly this week
Friday 26th March
| Gloucester v Exeter | 17:30 | BT Sport 3 |
| France v Scotland | 20:00 | BBC1 |
Saturday 27th March
| Glasgow v Treviso | 13:45 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bristol v Harlequins | 14:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| London Irish v Bath | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Worcester v Northampton | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wasps v Sale | 16:30 | BT Sport1 |
| Leinster v Munster | 17:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 28th March
| Dragons v Edinburgh | 14:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Leicester v Newcastle | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Ah, that quote didn’t work well.
Anyway, one of my favourite ways of reading Dracula is as a treatise on 19th Century fears about medicine.
Favourite reading is that it’s the novel of reverse colonialism and the 19th Century property market.
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I only learned today that Count Dracula lived in Purfleet.
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Iain Sinclair got it:
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Dracula is Essex Man indeed.
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The similarities with Dracula are subtle, I’ll give you that.
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It’s a tremendous read and tells you so much about Victorian society. The boy Stoker might not have known he was doing that but I’m pleased he did.
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Heffer, on the other hand, is an Enoch Powell-worshipping cunt.
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Post-CJ (Stander, not our CJ) Jason Jenkins to Munster – have we done this?
The story goes that Munster wanted Pieter-Steph du Toit for Six hunner Euro per year, the wage was going to be heavily subsidised by private investment, but the IRFU refused to sign it off.
The thinking is that it would be an impossible sell when the across-the-board wage cuts kick in later in the year.
It raises an interesting issue on how rugby is going to be conducted after all this.
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I can’t say I know who Jason Jenkins is, but at 2.01m and 122kg, he is a bit of a unit.
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How I wish we could have a vaccine debate in South Africa. I’ll probably only be eligible for the jab towards the end of this year, assuming they speed up the rollout 10 fold. So probably only some time in the year 2525.
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Jenkins seems to be a lock, rather than a backrower.
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@deebee
Move to Ireland
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Ticht, Jenkins played for the Bulls in SA and was probably a bit unlucky that we have a bit of depth in the 2nd row at the moment, so was consistently overlooked for higher honours (but did get a single cap against Wales in that bizarre Washington match). So hands off Ireland. Interesting that he’ll rekindle a partnership with RG Snyman at Munster, if RG is ever fit again. Was also competing with Lood de Jager at the Bulls, and with Etzebeth and Franco Mostert ahead of him as well in the Bok picture, he took the money in Japan before heading to Munster. Good luck to him!
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@OT
General consensus that UK won’t have any surplus for a good while and that 3.7m is strangely the close to the answer you get if you Google “How many adults are there in Ireland”
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@trisk
3.7m will only vaccinate half that number anyway. Not sure when the surplus will arrive either but it depends on a lot of things including: AZ production numbers holding up; the next 5m AZ doses arriving from India; no hiccups in the Moderna or Pfizer supplies from Europe; timing of approval and scale up of CureVac and Novavax.
The Novavax one is very interesting – if they can get that one up and running quickly then we could quickly find ourselves in a very strong position indeed. Problem is the UK government are very good at not over promising on these things, for good reason. For example I learned last week that the AZ roll our should have started in November but, guess what, they had scale up production issues so it wasn’t launched until January (they very cleverly delayed approval till December as well to make it look like they were connected). So the PR in the UK about delayed AZ production was very different to the PR in Europe when it happened there!
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Obviously the history of medicine is grim and big pharma is responsible for the opiod crisis but that was also a factor of how drugs are marketed in the US. A state run vaccine program in the 21st century is not comparable. There seems to be a depressing level of politicisation of something that is good for everyone.
I remember Brett Weinstein and his wife taking some heat as anti vaxxers when they said that the new type of vaccine has a higher risk as it hasn’t been tested or used as much as the old type. They didn’t say that they wouldn’t have it though. I think people were willfully missing the point there.
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During our librarians’ chat this morning we were talking about books we hated or couldn’t finish for whatever reason. One of my colleagues fulminated about something called The Reverse Reflection (or Hell’s Gate – never a good sign when something can’t decide what it’s called). Just so we could all share the pain, she pasted a couple of paragraphs for us to ‘enjoy’. It almost reads like a spoof, but it is SO badly written I don’t think it can be. So enjoy the literary talents of Jesse Garon (or Scott Winfield)….
“After leaving the evils of New York, it was a relief not to hear gun shots and people screaming. Before finding a warm place to sleep, I decided to look around in the barn. While in the barn, I found an old dusty army jacket. Feeling the cold wind on the back of my neck, the coat was a welcome addition to my attire. While looking around some more in the barn, it was time to go outside. The door creaked loudly as I walked outside. Looking to my right, I noticed an old graveyard, which was probably used for a family. Since studying the paranormal was one of my major interests, I decided to look a little further. Weirdly, the further I walked toward the graveyard; the ground began to breathe as if it was a breathing entity. Ten feet from the graveyard, night turned into day. My heart started to beat very rapidly the closer to the entrance of the graveyard. Suddenly, the wind stopped and it became very quiet.”
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@bb
By coincidence in the “so bad it’s good” territory I’ve started listening to Beach Boy Mike Love’s solo album from 1981 called “Looking Back with Love”. Track 1 has the following lyric:
Am now on track 2 which is a cover of Abba’s “On and on and on” which is as awful as you expect.
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This year’s European Rugby Finals will not now be in Marseilles – new venue still to be agreed.
Semis will be at designated ‘home’ club.
2022 will be in Marseilles; 2023 will be at London (Tottenham Hotspurs).
https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/news/epcr-statement-march-31
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On the other hand in Love at First Bite, Drac was evicted from his castle so the State could convert it into a training centre for budding Nadia Comaneci’s. His parting short to the peasants was to be careful what you wish for. Without him Transylvania will become like ‘Bucharest on a Monday night’.
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Arf BB. There’s hope for us all then. *Dips quill in ink*.
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Well after all that hand wringing I got through to the online vaccine place today and have my 2 jabs booked in April and May.
It’s fairly obvious I suppose that the booking system was less overwhelmed after the growing AZ jab concerns here, but oddly enough it seems I’ll get the BioNTech version anyway, as will Mrs. Iks.
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ticht, to add to what Deebee said, Jenkins is a very solid player, good skills, fast and strong. And he can play at blind-side as well. He played quite a lot for the Bulls as de Jager was often out injured when he played there. Plus, he was very good last year when the Bulls won their 4th SuperRugby title.
He’s always been a bit behind Snyman, they’re the same age but two played years of Craven Week together and age group and Bulls alongside each other, but is a good foil for very very Big RG. When we moved to Pretoria they were both in the Under 19 team – with Warrick Gelant and Ivan van Zyl, who are Boks, and your lad Duhan van der Merwe. Plus, Hanro Liebenberg, who’s now at Leicester and is a decent player but has never quite reached the level he might have. The Bulls lost the final that year to Western Province.
It’s a good move for him but not a move I understand for Munster.
(Also, i’ve read Munster wanted to chuck 800,000 Euro a year at PS du Toit)
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For several years I managed a remote development team in Romania – it was unbelievable the change in Bucharest between 2006 and 2019…. huge development and improvement….the old town was comprehensively redeveloped in that time….
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600k was mentioned in a few places I read… but it’s mystifying.
Holland is gone and two academy players Ahern and Hurley played vs Bennetton…not clear how you bring them on by bringing in a short term recruit… unless there’s some plan to have Beirne at 6 with Coombes at 8… leaves you down a second row. …although there’s also Wycherley…
Nor surprised Hanrahan has gone… with Carbery fit and Healy, Crowley and Flannery queued up behind…. he probably got an offer of more game time at Clermont if nothing else.
Money is tight and it was well known the funds available would go to retaining young academy prospects and the high achievers not the middle rank pros.
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Saw the 800,000 figure earlier today. Can’t remember where now. 600,000 or 800,000 is a massive amount of money.
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Worked a fair bit in Bratislava in the early to mid-nineties. The old town was a perennial building site, with a lot of the work seeming to involve digging up and replacing piping under the cobbles.
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@Iks – Did Deebee put the cobbles in a bucket and carry them about for you?
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Visited Bratislava for a day (via the train) while we were in Vienna. Lovely place and so different from Vienna. Thought the old town looked fantastic.
Mind you, it was Bucharest that was being mentioned earlier….
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They all lokk the same once the cobbles have been dug up and the piping replaced.
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Bratislava had to smarten up after 1993 once it became capital of an independent Slovakia. Lots of big financial service companies set up there plus the embassies.
Petrzalka’s still the best part.
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Bratislava’s a bit too small for me. The Old Town’s ok and the Castle’s got its own story. But there’s great big magistrala running through it. I do like the cafe on the top of the bridge.
Vienna, on the other hand, is a terrific place, maybe more because of my love of Musil, Joseph Roth and The Third Man.
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The UFO bridge:
https://www.welcometobratislava.eu/ufo-bridge-tower/
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Did a geography field trip to Bratislava when I was at uni. We went to Petrzalka in the morning and were allowed to do our own thing in the arvo. As long as we were back for the bus. It was really important not to miss the last bus back to the station.
My friend and I were five minutes late for the bus. Luckily the bus was 10mins late. The look on my lecturer’s face was priceless.
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Iksy should put Orava Castle on his next trip to Slovakia. It was where Murnau shot a lot of Nosferatu. And is a beautiful castle. Also about half an hour from Ruzonberok, where Peter Lorre was born.
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We didn’t go across the bridge when we were there, but we did go up to the castle. It was shut.
Loved Vienna – the weather was fantastic, end of May, really sunny and bloody hot. We stayed about 15/20 minutes from the centre. Would love to go back (once we’re allowed to).
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In yet more perfidious UK meddling, Rassie Erasmus has stepped down with immediate effect from his role as Director of Rugby in South Africa to take up a role as logistics and technical manager for the British and Irish Lions. Can you fucking believe it?
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I went to Bratislava on a school trip in 1965……………weather was poor and the place was grim. I’m glad it is healed now.
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Loved Vienna
This means nothing to me.
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I would actually do that if the chance arose, TomP. Good to know.
I have a post-covid holiday in the bank as Mrs. Iks plans to go to see a friend in the US for a month when the chance arrives (begone, corona). That trip is not for me, so I will choose to go elsewhere another time. Probably a lazy beach holiday, but you never know.
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Top tip. If you read that story about Rassie Erasmus, it really comes alive if you sing the zither theme to The Third Man, using the words 🎵DeeBeeDeeBeeDeeBee…🎵
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BB, Museums, castles etc are almost all always closed on Mondays in the CR and Slovakia. Prepping for the week ahead.
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Top review of the meat monster’s new book:
https://artreview.com/why-do-people-seek-help-from-jordan-peterson-beyond-order-review/
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Can’t remember if we were there on a Monday or not.
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More vaccine news:
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Yeah – similar to Bucharest around 2010 – mind you it’s not that part of town that got it called the “Paris of the East” (among a bunch of others) – north of the city centre has lots of really nice buildings that have been or are being restored to their former glory.
Never got beyond Bucharest in all my travels there – even though I was urged to go to Brasov, Sibiu any number of times…. with a young family back here – I wasn’t in the right life moment to swan around Romania on the corporate dime.
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“I wasn’t in the right life moment to swan around Romania on the corporate dime.”
Deebee’ll be turning in his grave when he reads this.
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trisk, I’ve got a Czech friend living in Bucharest right now. He was in Brasov last weekend and said it’s a lovely place. It’s now been quarantined off and one can’t travel there. He’s a big fan of the coffee scene in Bucharest.
There’s a guy I teach whose cousin is professional floorball player and the cousin is married to a Czech Romanian. This cousin runs a music festival in the Banat: https://english.radio.cz/czech-music-festival-gets-underway-romanias-banat-8153538
Romania and its polyculturism is really interesting. The links to France (hence the rugby), the German-speaking minority (including the current President and Herta Muller, the Nobel Prize winner and author of some of the blrakest fiction I’ve read), the very small Czech-speaking minority, the large Hungarian minority etc etc. It all goes a bit wrong from time to time but is intriguing.
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Yeah – fascinating place – my colleagues came from all over – some from Constanta on the Black Sea and others from way up north – on the border with Ukraine (I recall 2 lads had surnames ending in “Ciuc” – Romanian rendering of the Ukrainian “-chuk” ending on surnames)
In the early days – if anyone headed home for a weekend it was a huge undertaking – as things developed after EU entry trips home became less of an undertaking (also over 10 years they settled down and returned home less)
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